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Talker's MagazineThe quirky talk radio trade mag. Check the Talk Radio Research Project- it's not very scientific, but places on the top 15 talkers list (scroll down to Talk Radio Audiences By Size)) are as hotly contested as Emmys (and mean just about as much).

The AdvocateNo, not THAT Advocate... it's the Northwest Progressive Institute's Official Blog.

Media MattersDocumentation of right-wing media in video, audio and text.

Orcinushome of David Neiwert, freelance investigative journalist and author who writes extensively about far-right hate groups

Hominid Views"People, politics, science, and whatnot"
Darryl is a statistician who fights imperialism with empiricism, gives good links and wry commentary.

Jesus' General An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender, a 12 on the Heavenly Scale of the 10 Commandments and a 6 on the earthly scale of the Immaculately Groomed.

Irrational Public Radio "informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation. When you listen to IPR, integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin."

The Moderate VoiceThe voice of reason in the age of Obama, and the politics of the far-middle.

News Hounds Dogged dogging of Fox News by a team who seems to watch every minute of the cable channel so you don't have to.

HistoryLinkFun to read and free encyclopedia of Washington State history. Founded by the late Walt Crowley, it's an indispensable tool and entertainment source for history wonks and surfers alike.

right-wing blogs we like

The Reagan WingHearin lies the real heart of Washington State Republicans. Doug Parris runs this red-meat social conservative group site which bars no holds when it comes to saying who they are and who they're not; what they believe and what they don't; who their friends are and where the rest of the Republicans can go. Well-written, and flaming.

March 17, 2012

Cumulus clouds continue to rain on hometown radio

As media consolidations go, the transistion from Citadel to Cumulus has been anything but partly cloudy.

One of the largest examples was the mass firing this past December at west coast blowtorch, KGO. Some of the biggest on-air talent was let go including Gene Burns, Ray Talliafero and John Rothmann.

Inserted in it's place was supposedly what the Bay Area wanted, another mostly news station to go head to head with all-news-all- the time KCBS. CBS has a track record of converting 50,000 watt major market stations am stations such as KNX, WCBS and others. Problem is, CBS radio did this years ago when it was inovative and had the resources to build a market leader as a format. As ratings go, KGO was once #1, now in 7th or lower until the spring books come out.

Ray Taliafero, the man who used to walk and talk after midnight.

While it's true that KGO faltered as far back as 2010 when it lost the top spot to rival KCBS, the talk as compared to "news and information" as KGO bills itself has replaced it's local weekday overnight hosts with syndication, as one of Cumulus' own programs, "Red Eye Radio" replaced the John Rothmann/ Taliafero era of live and local radio.

Red Eye, a repackaged name for the old "Midnight Truckers Radio Network" which consists of 2 hosts, Gary McNamara and Eric Harley, which would be better aptly named The Red State Radio Angst network.

School bus driver who also kinda drives a truck and is prime demo for Red Eye radio

Who else has Cumulus rained on?

While the Seattle market is not their territory since a local indie band has claim to that name, other market areas have seen similar mass firings.

In Knoxville TN, a four decade long run for WIVK' PD Mike Hammond ended this week from one of the highest rated country stations in the market. Hammond was replaced by a Cumulus insider with a background in syndication. Hammond's son, Jack Ryan was also let go at the same time. Ryan told WBIR TV, "It's the sign of the times I guess... we had strong ratings- it wasn't that. I think it was cutting jobs."

Is it possible for a large media giant to have mostly local hosts and still do News/Talk?

KMOX, a CBS owned station in St Louis has been a market leader whose programming is live and local with one major syndication,The Rush Limbaugh Show . KMOX held the distinction of holding the record for consecutive number one Arbitron ratings books in the United States. The station was consistently the number one radio station with listeners 12 and older since 1972.

Comments

Red Eye is one of my favorite TV shows on Fox - hosted by Greg Guttfeld, who would be a good comedian and has a lively round table discussion. Also like The Five on Fox with Bob Beckel, former campaign mgr. for Mondale in 1984 and 4 conservatives. Beckel usually gets in the good lines and makes sense about 1/2 of the time - Guttfeld is also on that show and Juan Williams shows up sometimes. The show is political, but also funny. They keep it light and it shows the people from both sides can still have civil discussions and be respectful.

Red Eye Radio ? Not heard around here, just stuff like Phil Hendrie and All-Night and reruns of conservative and liberal talk shows. Are folks in the deep south really as stupid as people around here portray them as being ?

I assumed that the KGO format was doomed when Cumulus bought KGO form ABC Radio. They actually held on a lot longer than I thought that they would.

Entercom was in the running to buy KGO but lost out to Cumulus. I think that Entercom might have preserved the format like they did here with KIRO.

It is sad not to hear Ray Taliafero's voice cutting through the late night static while overcoming the preachers on KGNW-820. He got me through the bush Maladministration and I'm sure that he went down fighting.

KVI am 570 KHz Visit the burnt-out husk of one of the seminal right-wing talkers in all the land. Here's where once trilled the reactionary tones of Rush Limbaugh, John Carlson, Kirby Wilbur, Mike Siegel, Peter Weissbach, Floyd Brown, Dinky Donkey, and Bryan Suits.
Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.

KTTH am 770 KHzRight wing home of local, and a whole bunch of syndicated righties such as Glennn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larsony, and for an hour a day: live & local David Boze.